Demand for Balinese beef boosts cattle breeders
Demand for Balinese beef boosts cattle breeders
By I Ketut Sutika
DENPASAR, Bali (Antara): The strained relations between Australia and Indonesia have become a blessing in disguise for local cattle breeders.
The demand for beef from Bali is on the rise because the import of Australian beef has become unreliable due to the worsening relations between the two countries.
Australia has been a major supplier of beef to Indonesia, providing 60,000 tons, or 15 percent, of the 400,000 tons of beef that Indonesia consumes annually.
In fact, Indonesia's ability to import beef or livestock from Australia has dropped since the economic crisis began in 1997 when the rupiah plunged against the dollar.
"Many Indonesian companies who have traditionally relied on Australia for beef have turned to Balinese beef which is famous for its good taste," says I Gusti Made Alit Ekaputra, chief of the Balinese Animal Husbandry Office.
MV ST, a Yogyakarta-based trade consultancy firm which has been a longtime importer of beef from Australia, for example, has explored the possibility of doing large scale business in Balinese beef.
The company has also explored the possibility of buying beef from South Sulawesi, West Nusa Tenggara and East Nusa Tenggara.
"It is a positive development for cattle breeders, especially in Bali and we have to seize this opportunity," Ekaputra says.
Bali has 202,838 hectares of grassy dry fields which are good for intensive cattle breeding. A recent study by the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) concluded that the land is suitable for breeding Balinese cows.
Balinese cows are popular for not only their meat but also their adaptability to new surroundings and they have been successfully bred throughout Indonesia, notably Sumatra, Sulawesi, Kalimantan and Nusa Tenggara.
"We are a bit late in anticipating this (the soaring demand for Balinese beef)," Ekaputra says. "It takes about four years to raise a cow until it weighs the ideal 400 kilogram weight and we need a lot of them now."
The provincial government has made various efforts to make Bali a reliable source of beef for domestic consumption. Although each Balinese farming family has only a couple of cows, they are now learning faster breeding systems and cattle fattening techniques.
With the use of modern technology, it now takes only between one to two years to have a cow weighing 400 kilograms. A 250 kilogram calf needs only one year to reach a weight of 400 kilograms. With the use of this technology, the cow's weight can increase by one kilogram every day.
"More and more farmers are trying the fattening technique and every regency in Bali is making a pilot project," Ekaputra says.
Conservation
As Indonesia's main tourist destination, Bali is a big consumer of beef itself. Bali is struggling to conserve the cow. The cows for export are limited to a maximum of 10 percent of the total cattle population.
In 1999, Bali set 90,000 heads of cattle for commercial purposes. Of the total, 40,000 were sold to outer islands, 5,000 for canned beef and 45,000 for local consumption, which includes tourists.
The highest demand for Balinese beef usually occurs in November and December, especially when Christmas and New Year celebrations are approaching.
The Balinese cattle industry has been overseen by Indapta, an association of Indonesian cattle traders, which also makes sure that no illegal business occurs.
Recently, some Indapta officials have been suspected of misusing their authority by illegally issuing trading permits to businesspeople from Java.
Balinese cattle now numbers 530,000, according to official statistics, and the population is growing by 2.7 percent a year. The population is the fifth biggest after that of East Java, Central Java, West Nusa Tenggara and South Sulawesi.
The new trend has become a source of encouragement for Balinese farmers. Now, a live cow is sold at a rate of Rp 8,650 per kilogram.